As protests have erupted across Turkey following the arrest of the leading opposition figure and mayor of Istanbul Ekrem İmamoğlu, Yusuf Can, a coordinator and analyst with the Wilson Center's Middle East Program, informed Politico that Elon Musk's X (Twitter) has reportedly shut down accounts associated with the political opposition.
Most of the suspended accounts belonged to "grassroots activists" who had followers in the low tens of thousands. These activists were sharing information about protest locations, particularly near universities, where many demonstrations are occurring.
According to Politico, while many opposition accounts seem to have been fully suspended, others appear to be restricted only within Turkey. This development seems to contradict Musk's repeated claims of being a "free speech absolutist."
X's transparency report indicates that the platform complied with 86% of the Turkish government's requests to terminate content in the latter half of 2024. Turkey submitted more requests for content dumping than any other nation except Japan, exceeding the total requests from the European Union and all of North America combined.
Musk has directly addressed X's relationship with the Turkish government. During a conversation with American activist Matthew Yglesias on the platform, Musk responded to criticisms regarding his cooperation with Turkish authorities by saying, "The choice is to have Twitter throttled completely or to limit access to certain tweets. Which option do you prefer?"
The enforcement of Twitter's anti-censorship philosophy has not always been consistent. So far, X has blocked accounts that track Musk's private jet movements, and last year, the platform removed links to a leaked dossier on JD Vance. Recently, many users found themselves unable to share links to Signal, an encrypted messaging app frequently used by journalists.
However, X has also faced nationwide bans due to its refusal to remove certain content. The platform was blocked across Brazil before being reinstated after it declined to eliminate accounts that Judge Alexandre de Moraes claimed posed a threat to Brazilian democracy. This legal confrontation also resulted in sanctions against Musk's other ventures, including SpaceX's Starlink.
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